Alex is a speculative fiction writer and mountain of indescribable goo living in the PNW. When they aren't gluing pieces of metal together, they're reading from their arsenal of books, being a general menace, or playing video games. You can contact them via email at [email protected], or by howling into the woods when you're alone at night.
FROM UNDER A POISONED BOUGH is a sapphic ecological epic fantasy serial project about a world that clawed itself back from the edge of ruin and the skyclad empire that tried to destroy it. This is a project that will be told in parts and sent directly to your inbox, for free, then later packed and sold as complete novels. I'm very, very excited about this. I aim to start sending chapters out in August!
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FROM UNDER A POISONED BOUGH, a WIP Intro by @authoralexharvey
GENRE — ecological epic fantasy
INSPIRATIONS — A Winter's Promise, Game of Thrones, Hollow Knight + Silksong, LoZ: BotW, Monk & Robot, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, The Priory of the Orange Tree, The Traitor Baru Cormorant
POV — multi-third person POV (2 to start, up to 4 in later parts)
TAGS AND TROPES — Animism, class divides and societal structures, ethical nonmonogamy and exploring polyamory, grappling with your savior complex, kaijus, naturalistic magic, rebuilding community from disaster, searching for purpose, solarpunk, watching the ruling class tear itself apart
WARNINGS — Abortion, death, domestic abuse, dubious consent, emetophobia/vomiting, mentions of past child abuse, misogyny, murder, violence
STATUS — drafting + preparing to serialize
GOAL — way too fuckin long
THE DETAILS
CHARACTERS
Lili has seen the worlds of the above and the below. She was there on the day the savior of worlds was chosen, and again when she was entombed. Centuries later, Lili herself awakens from arboreal slumber in the sky. Though everyone around her believes the surface has been destroyed and the Eidolons controlled by the Empire's Houses, she maintains her faith.
Ahelicia knows only of the Empire, and it is to this she stakes her loyalty. Nothing can sway her, not even a citadel slowly crumbling around her—until a devastating choice leaves her stripped of her livelihood and honor. Though she follows a lead to restore her status, it isn't long before she wonders if redemption in the eyes of the Empire is worth it, and if her loyalty to it even remains...
Myrtle was once a simple factory worker, but no longer. When her partner vanishes in the dead of night, she entreats the Empire's knights to investigate...and instead finds herself a pawn in a dangerous game played by twin siblings of a House cannibalizing itself.
Sorrel was once a savior. Blessed with the powers of the Eidolons, she was the world's last hope against an empire set on destruction. But when the empire turned her powers against her, she perished. At least, she thought she had.
SUMMARY
A woman lost in time. A knight longing for home. A peasant fighting for her life. A savior entombed in stone.
Once, the surface world flourished. Eidolons—massive, god-like beings—anointed a select few to enact Their will and were in turn worshipped for Their impossible magic. Then came the Empire with contraptions of fire and iron, intent on devouring all. And though a savior was chosen to prevent their onslaught, she was not enough. The surface was left in ruins, the Empire taking to the sky with imprisoned Eidolons in tow.
Centuries later, a world split in two tightens its bonds once again. After a chance encounter spirals the lives of four women irreparably out of control, it's up to them to stay the hand of a god-slaying empire. Otherwise, the world's careful stasis will crumple—for good.
Details of this post subject to change as the drafts continue.
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when the subject of "why do people believe things that are seriously wrong and harmful" comes up it feels like you kinda hear one of two perspectives:
"oh, that's easy! it's because they're fundamentally Bad people who want to hurt others and choose their beliefs to justify that! :) hope this helps"
or
"they just don't have access to the same information we do. look at this person who was raised in a cult! don't you feel sorry for her?"
and like, yes, fine, some people were in fact raised in cults, but what i wish people would understand is that the bulk of it is just normal human flaws, like:
they want to believe stuff that makes them feel smart and cool and like they've figured everything out (you also do this)
they want to believe stuff that makes them feel like their emotions are justified and grounded in reality, and that the people they want to hurt deserve to be hurt (you also do this)
they form conclusions before they've processed all the relevant information, and cling to that first impression even when new info comes to light (you also do this)
they pick up beliefs from the people around them because they want to be liked and fit in, not because the beliefs are good or true (you also do this)
they come up with reasons that the stuff that benefits them (and the people they like and identify with) is actually overwhelmingly best for everyone and obviously the right thing to do (you also do this)
they pay more attention to stuff that supports what they already believe and avoid looking in places that might show them otherwise (you also do this)
they listen to people who talk like 'one of them' and ignore others (you also do this)
they come up with reasons to dismiss people with conflicting viewpoints as obviously in bad faith or ignorant or a shill or evil (you also do this)
they fail to take their own beliefs seriously sometimes, and take their beliefs way too seriously other times, in a selective way that lets them do the things they already wanted to do (you also do this)
the very ways they construct the ideas of 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' and 'belief' and 'understanding' are biased so that what they don't want to believe comes under lots of scrutiny and what they do want to believe receives less (you also do this)
you, dear reader, are presumably right about everything and were correct to die on every hill you've ever died on, but the difference between you and someone who's wrong about important stuff doesn't look like "well they're inherently evil and i'm not", it probably looks like a combination of:
natural environment (they would have been exposed to different information than you regardless of their choices)
being in the right place at the right time (your particular profile of flaws and virtues happened to be what was needed to lead you to the right conclusions, they had the opposite experience)
random luck (you doubled down on what felt right to believe but wasn't, but it turned out to be inconsequential, or even right for different reasons, while they doubled down on what turned out to be a horrible mistake distorting their entire worldview)
you do less of the things in the previous list, and over time the difference between you and them adds up
and, look, i also do these things. the nicest and most thoughtful people i've ever met do these things. if you meet someone who never does any of these things, i dunno, give them a fucking medal or something.
i know you're doing your best. we're all doing our best.
People in the notes being like "these are weaknesses of neurotypical people; my autism means I don't have these flaws": yes you do, and this post is about you specifically. People who believe that they're somehow magically immune to cognitive biases are the ones who tend to fall victim to them the hardest.
Himitsu ~Kuro no Chikai~ Novel Translation (Complete)
After over a year of working on-and-off, I’ve finally finished translating the Vocaloid novel for HitoshizukuP’s “Himitsu ~Kuro no Chikai~ Alluring Secret ~Black Vow~”! And so, of course, I have to make a mandatory advertising post for because really, it’s great novel with a beautifully-written story, and I’d love for more people to read it. (Sorry for the low quality cover image–I couldn’t find one of higher quality.) “Himitsu” was one of the first Vocaloid songs I’d listened to, and still one I like a lot, so it was very enjoyable to reading and translating how the story was adapted and expanded upon in the novel version, giving a lot of context for scenes seen in the original song’s PV.
A brief overview of the plot of the song/novel: Rin, a young angel (presumed female, but angels don’t have clear genders) falls in love with a young human girl, Miku. However, their love is considered taboo, and so, Rin makes a deal with the devil to be reborn as the human boy, Len, in order to be with Miku. However, their happiness together is short-lived, and even that soon ends in tragedy.
Fully translated chapters here! (The only thing missing is an extra prequel story written in a bonus booklet separate from the novel, about Rin and Gumi going to find the Seven Wonders of Heaven when they were still students at the academy. I’ll be aiming to get that done by early February.)
＊If you can, I highly encourage supporting the creators by buying the book for yourself at Amazon! (also, I most likely won’t be scanning the illustrations, so if you’d like to see them, there’s another reason to buy it)
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I know this is the website where we talk about artists and writers doing anything other than making art or writing, but man, we REALLY undersell how good it feels to actually work on your stuff.
Like you hit your word count for the first time in a week and its like
I think that if a story ever pulls a line like "You could have destroyed your magic with a stunt like that!" or "Pushing ahead with your magic too quickly can have dangerous consequences!" then the story should be obligated at some point to show me these magically disabled people.
All stories should have more disabled people, honestly, because disability is a basic part of being alive! What am I supposed to think of any given fictional community if I never see any elderly people, any retired people, any injured people, or any disabled people?
But seriously, a lot more fantasy stories specifically could really stand to show people who have been burned by magic to various degrees and are now living with the consequences. I'm too used to the protagonists fainting and sleeping extreme recklessness off without issue.
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”twenty thousand last meals on an exploding station” is a short story I read a while ago that still has one of the most unique scifi takes on transition I’ve ever seen. the protagonist has transitioned from a human to a cyborg mermaid and although people discriminate against her she loves her body and her community. also she’s trapped in a time loop trying to eat at every restaurant on the space station before her sister rescues her
this character basically has gender euphoria from her scifi augments and now every time I read a book with a character who has extreme cyborg modifications I’m like “but do they like it? how does it fit with their personal image of their body? do they have a community?”
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With the river in blue and with blood variations. I wanted to have some crossover from my gtn cover, making things partially destroyed , like the side flaps. As well as having the sword in the same position, Gideons presence is still there! Even if she, herself, is not 🥲
I know I already made a post to this effect but it's so baffling to me when someone defends the fact that headphone jacks are slowly but surely getting phased out by smartphone manufacturers with some variations of "wireless headphones are more convenient anyway" bc like. If we're talking about convenience what I like about wired headphones is that they conveniently have a single plug that makes the same damn pair of headphones universally compatible with every single audio-output-capable device I own, from my phone and my computer to my fucking gameboy and my casette player, it doesn't get any more convenient than that.
